Early in the century Ohio enacted laws inhibiting negroes from
settling in that state, unless they produced certificates of their
freedom, from a Court of Record, and executed bonds, with approved
security, not to become charges upon the counties in which they
settled. They were not permitted to give evidence in court in any
cause where a white man was party to the controversy or prosecution,
nor could they send their children to the public schools. About the
middle of the century many of these laws were repealed, but, by the
constitution adopted as late as 1851, they were denied the right to
vote, and were excluded from the militia.[248]
Indiana at first permitted free negroes to settle in the state,
provided they gave bonds, with approved security, not to become
charges upon the counties where they lived; but, in 1851, a new
constitution was adopted which specifically provided (Article XIII,
Section 1) that "no negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the
state after the adoption of this constitution."[249]
This clause in the constitution was adopted by over ninety thousand
majority of the popular vote.[250]
In Illinois, following a series of laws of like import, an act was
passed in 1853, "to prevent the immigration of free negroes into this
state," the third section of which declared it a misdemeanor for a
negro or mulatto, bond or free, to come into the state with the
intention of residing.[251] Section four of this act provided that any
negro coming into the state in violation of the act should be fined
and sold for a time to pay the fine and cost.
In 1862, in the Constitutional Convention then in session, the
provisions of this statute were engrafted upon the organic law of the
state. Article XVIII provided:
Section 1. "No negro or mulatto shall immigrate or settle in this
state after the adoption of the constitution."
This article of the constitution was submitted to the popular vote
separately from the body of the constitution, and, though the latter
was rejected by over 16,000 majority, the former was made a part of
the organic law of Illinois by a majority of 100,590. This vote was
taken in August, 1862, and thus, barely a month before Mr. Lincoln's
first Proclamation of Emancipation, the people of his own state, by a
vote approaching unanimity, placed in their constitution this clause
preventing free negroes from coming into their commonwealth.[252]
By the constitution of Oregon, adopted on November 9th, 1857, it was
provided that:
"No free negro or mulatto, not residing in this state at the time of
the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside or be within
this state ... and the legislative assembly shall provide by penal
laws for the removal by public officers of all such negroes and
mulattoes, and for their effectual exclusion from the state, and for
the punishment of persons who shall bring them into the state or
employ or harbor them."[253]
This provision of the constitution was adopted by a popular vote of
8040 to 1081 against it.